Fourth Sunday of Advent Read more
Homily
We are at the last Sunday of Advent. Jesus is at the door. What kind of Christmas are we preparing? What kind of Christmas do we want for this world marked by fear and uncertainty? What kind of Christmas do we want for a world that allows war and injustices to happen; that is at once uncertain and arrogant; that, easily bothered, pushes away the weak; that wants everything without accepting the risk of love and responsibility; and that closes the doors both to its heart and home? A world that has so much, but is so dissipated and wear that it does not leave room for anyone else. God chose a poor young girl from Nazareth, to be born among men and women. Since then is Christmas; when God found a home in the heart of that girl. How sad is instead the affirmation of Luke when he notes that "there was no place for them in the inn." The house God seeks is entirely human. "We are the Temple of the living God," the apostle will remind us. That child will have no place to lay his head, because he wants to be everywhere with us. He says, "Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking." If we open the door to him, he will stay with us.
Mary is the first to listen to the Word and the first to be available. She is God's first home, the Ark of the Covenant. With her, the entire humanity becomes the house of God. She said to the angel who appeared to her, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Mary does not wait; she does not take time. Not everything is clear, but she says yes to the angel. Mary does not see the fruits immediately; she does not say yes because she had the proof before her eyes. Let us open our heart to the Gospel and the world will be free from enmity and will open itself up to love. Let us take on the burden of God's weakness and of humanity's weakness and we will find a love that does not end. Let us also physically prepare a place for those who have none. Let us not leave anyone on his or her own! Christmas means to welcome the child and all those who are poor and weak. This is Christmas.
Imitating Mary allows us to be free to. Nothing is impossible for God. Nothing is impossible for those who believe. And let us ask the Lord to melt the coldness of our heart, to conquer the fears that block us and to free us from an ever-present love for ourselves. Make haste to come, Lord, in our world so full of fears and violence. Come Lord, and free us to recognize you, leaving you room so that we may be born to new life with you.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
